Bob's your uncle

Posted by Victor Bennett on March 07, 2010 at 18:48

I am a avid reader of the Aubrey-Maturin novels of the late Patrick O'Bryan. The author was renowned for his meticulous research in the spoken language of the early 19th century. But has he been caught out for once? One of his characters, a bosun aboard one of Aubrey's ships, uses the expression, "Bob's your uncle" during the first decade of the 19th century. I believe this could well be an anachronism or am I mistaken?